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Rolla Peace News March 10, 2015 |
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Dear Friends: In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THIS WEEK, THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2015 2. FERGUSON: WIN ONE, LOSE ONE 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) How Do You Spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-S-Y b) Getting Pretty Close to Home c) Bibi Go Home!
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We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2015, (and all subsequent Thursdays until peace is established) from Noon to 1:00 PM. Please try to join us. The temperature is predicted to be in the 50s. If you do not feel comfortable standing with us in front of the Post Office, please consider driving by and showing your support for our message by honking your horn and flashing a peace sign. 2. FERGUSON: WIN ONE, LOSE ONE The DOJ giveth, and it taketh away. On the plus side, its report on racism and injustice in Ferguson validates the community's charges that African-Americans are unfairly targeted and and ill-treated by their own police force. As Patricia Bynes, a Democratic committeewoman from Ferguson, says: “An entire community is not making this up.” This resulted in a judge who was notorious for preying on the poor blacks in Ferguson resigning, as the Supreme Court ordered all Ferguson municipal cases transferred to the county circuit court. On the other hand, the DOJ announced last week that it did not intend to prosecute ex-officer Darren Wilson for shooting and killing an unarmed Michael Brown, the incident that started the protests. Brown's family and supporters are understandably angry at this decision, and feel that it “gives a green light” to other killer cops. This may be true in the short run, but ultimately, punishing ex-officer Wilson would not address the cause of incidents such as this. Ferguson is not unique in having a system that exploits and abuses its poor and non-white citizens; this is a nationwide, society-wide problem. Similar incidents have occurred numerous times in many other cities, and the same circumstances obtain in most of them. Poor, largely non-white communities are controlled by a white minority, who are scared to death of their fellow-citizens, and feel that harsh measures are necessary to “control” them. This has always been the case in this country, but now, thanks to Ferguson and other communities that have spoken out in a big way, the situation cannot be ignored any longer. It is possible to solve this problem. They did it in South Africa, where the racial polarity was even worse than here. All it takes is a commitment on the part of government and the governed to really listen to each other, and to forgive and start over. 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) How Do You Spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-S-Y b) Getting Pretty Close to Home c) Bibi Go Home! HOW DO YOU SPELL H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-S-Y General David (Surge) Petraeus got two years probation and NO JAIL TIME for leaking information more secret than Top Secret (Sensitive Compartmented Information) to his mistress. Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning got tortured and then 35 years in prison for leaking information that was no more sensitive than Secret, although he had access to Sensitive Compartmented Information too. Daniel Ellsberg, who in 1971 leaked the Pentagon Papers showing that the government consistently and deliberately lied to the public about the Vietnam War, discusses the hypocrisy of slapping Petraeus on the wrist, while giving Manning 35 years and forcing Ed Snowden and Julian Assange into exile. In other words, who you are and who you leak to is so much more important than the leak itself. This could be called the “misrule of law.” As an old college friend writes to me, “I guess if disclosing classified info is because you [are] getting laid instead of trying to do something moral, that makes it almost OK.” GETTING PRETTY CLOSE TO HOME The latest oil train explosion happened less than a week ago in neighboring Illinois. That makes three oil train derailments in three weeks. You would think that it is about time to shut these trains down and convert to safe non-polluting renewable energy. Wouldn't you? — unless you happen to be more concerned about the fossil-fuel industry's megaprofits and the gajillions they spend lobbying the government than you are about public safety or the safety of the planet. Oops, I spoke too soon. There's been another train derailment and oil explosion. This time in Ontario, making four in four weeks. They just keep coming. The 2013 Lac-Mégantic explosion which killed 47 people is still the great-granddaddy of oil train explosions. BIBI GO HOME! 50,000 demonstrators in Tel-Aviv chant “Bibi Go Home!” Keynote speaker and former Mossad chief, Meir Dagan explains, “Israel has enemies but I do not fear them. What scares me is the current leadership of the country.” Here in the United States, Netanyahu got multiple standing ovations from Congress as he attempted to sabotage any diplomatic agreement with Iran, while calling for war, war and more war. Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions are unproven and unlikely. Israel harbors an estimated 200 nuclear weapons. 56 US senators and representatives (slightly over 10%) boycotted Netanyahu's speech before Congress. Lacy Clay was the only Missouri lawmaker among the 56. It is way past time that we stop letting Israel dictate our foreign policy to us. ================== Rolla Peace News is distributed by email once a week on Tuesday evenings (except on rare occasions) and is posted on the web at http://tomsager.org (click on Grassroots Rolla: top of rightmost column).If you don't wish to get notices of peace events in the Rolla area, let me know and I'll take you off this list. If you want to be added to this list, let me know. Wage peace, Helen helenm (at) fidnet.com ### |